Backbrat rack-mounted grill cooks while you cycle

Like a bratwrust on your ride? Here's a portable rack-mounted grill that will cook while you pedal

Ever get the urge for a well cooked sausage when you’re out riding your bicycle? No? Me neither, come to think of it. But if you ever did, then you’ll be relieved to know that somebody has spent time and money developing a rack-mounted grill so you can cook food while you cycle.

The Backbrat has been invented by Los Angeles-based Mathias Hintermann, who grew up in Switzerland. The designer obviously has decided to tackle the really big issue facing all cyclists: how to cook food when riding. Why not strap a barbecue to a rack?

It could be handy for cycling touring perhaps. If you timed it to perfection you could arrive at your evening stopover with dinner nicely cooked. it’s hard to imagine quite how distracting the smell of cooking food would be, especially for any companions following in your wake. Being serious for a second, grilling on the move isn’t the safest thing to do and that’s not what he’s suggesting you do. The idea is to ride to the park or someplace, then park up and get the grill on.

Mathias' actual reasoning is to combine the trends amongst young people for group cycling and BBQs in the park. And he’s going after the German market, where he says 5.9lbs of bratwurst were consumer per person in 2011.

The grill, big enough for four sausages (and we’re sure you could squeeze some onion and mushroom on there as well) is actually really rather well designed for the task. He’s developed his own locking system, a clamp fixes to a standard rack and the grill slides and locks into this accessory.

The grill is fuelled by charcoal and a lid slides over the top to keep your sausages in place. t’s all cleverly designed and now we’ve given it some thought, it doesn’t seem as mad as it did when we first stumbled across the idea. Mathias' website is packed with early design concepts and other cool stuff. It’s worth taking a look at www.mathiashintermann.com/#!backbrat/c1xq4

David has worked on the road.cc tech team since July 2012. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds.

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Charlie The Bik...[17 posts]5 years ago

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Only four sausages?

Not knocking it, but how is this better than a collapsible BBQ straped down to a rack or stashed in a pannier. Get to the park, unpack and cook.

I've often thought a small oven would be good. When touring on a Motorbike there is loads of heat, which could be diverted to a small pie sized oven above the engine. So you can have hot pies when you arrive at camp. And a small water tank... Hot water and food when you arrive.

The Vietnamese during their big war would walk these jungle trails carrying a small fire in a can, wired to the end of a stick, with a bird or something wired in place above the fire... And just have this over their shoulder while they walked.. So they didn't ned to stop and cook.

whats stopping the coals banging about and putting charcoal all over everything? The sausages would look like they've been dropped through the grate unless you have pristine smooth roads, which the Swiss probably do have. I don't think i'll be buying this one, although tenderising steak by sitting on it sounds like fun, maybe a saddle insert instead of those gel covers?

... presumably that's because you'd only have room in your saddle bag for four forks, especially if those forks had handles...

Charlie The Bikemonger wrote:

Not knocking it, but how is this better than a collapsible BBQ straped down to a rack or stashed in a pannier.

... you are knocking it. And quite right too, because it is the latest in a string of silly ideas for attaching things to bicycles that have no earthly reason to be associated with cycling. And even if you are the one in a millionth person for whom it has some use, it wouldn't be on a frequent enough basis to be worth the cost and inconvenience the other 99.99% of the time.

Simon_MacMichael wrote:

Just be sure that whoever is doing the cooking hasn't tenderised the steak in the old school cyclist way by using it in place of a chamois insert

Brilliant. I'm imagining the thick, acrid bbq smoke pouring out the back of my bike as I wait at the lights, then me conjuring up a fat sausage sandwich when I get to work.
He should make a much bigger one for cooking a whole roast dinner on longer rides.